Washington is entering a distinctly familiar situation: a paralyzing legislative stalemate with outsize importance for the nation’s economic and homeland security.

In just 25 days, automatic federal spending cuts — the ones Democrats and Republicans say they hate in equal measure — take hold.

But once again, rather than working together on a deal, House Republicans and Senate Democrats are on divergent paths — neither of which seem as though they’ll lead to quick resolution.

The GOP game plan: turn the heat up on President Barack Obama. Much like the tax rates in November, the spending cuts are baked into law. It’s Obama’s responsibility to replace the spending reductions, GOP leadership staff says. Don’t expect any more legislation from the House. They’ve passed legislation to stop the cuts, they say.

On the other side of the Capitol, Senate Democrats will push for revenue increases to help blunt the sequester — including closing corporate tax loopholes, they say.

“We need to keep our eye on the prize and continue to do something about spending, but I think that what we need to do is do something Mitt Romney talked about,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said on ABC’s “This Week.” “He said there’s some low-hanging fruit. There’s a lot of tax loohoples that should be closed, I agree with him. We haven’t done that.”

It’s a pattern that could cause major damage to the nation’s economy and national security, continue the steady erosion of congressional approval ratings, make budget politics extraordinarily difficult for the remainder of 2013 and stall action on key items of Obama’s agenda, including overhauls to the nation’s immigration and gun laws.

The House is in session for just 11 days this month as it wrestles with these policies.

The GOP’s gamble: Obama will be bombarded with voices that sound similar to that of outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

“If sequester happens, it’s going to badly damage the readiness of the United States of America,” Panetta said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We have the most powerful military force on the face of the earth right now. It is important in terms of providing stability and peace in the world. If sequester goes into effect, and we would have to do the kind of cuts that would go right at readiness, right at maintenance, right at training, we are going to weaken the United States and make it much more difficult for us to respond to the crises in the world.”

But the politics for the GOP is complicated. Defense hawks are sure to hammer leadership for not softening its rhetoric and policy stance. And conservatives are salivating for spending cuts — something the sequester offers.

For Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), it’s not as easy as placing the blame on Obama and walking away. Republican leadership has some serious strategic decisions to make. On March 27, just weeks after the sequester takes effect, government funding runs dry. Internally, GOP leadership is wrestling with when to start the government funding battle. If they pass a continuing resolution after the sequester takes hold, defense hawks could try to use that legislation to replace the cuts. If they pass it before the sequester takes hold — over the next few weeks — they hope to avoid that messy battle.

Republicans could also face the cosmetic and public relations problem that they have in the past: They simply aren’t doing a ton of substantive work. Take this week for example. In the three days in session — the House breaks Wednesday for the Democratic Caucus retreat in Leesburg, Va. — just one major bill will be considered, and it’s a message bill designed to pressure Obama into submitting a balanced budget.

House Republicans are also all but ignoring Obama’s legislative priorities of immigration reform and tightening gun laws, opting for the Senate to move those bills first. (The House Judiciary Committee, though, will have an immigration hearing this week.)

Within the next few weeks, Republicans will also restart conversations on their broader legislative agenda — a discussion started at their legislative retreat. That dialogue comes after Cantor delivers his own speech this week at the American Enterprise Institute on his view of what the party should stand for.

But all focus in Washington over the next few weeks will be on the automatic spending cuts. As Republicans try to deflect responsibility, the Obama administration is sure to continue slamming the GOP for inaction.

“[I] have to tell you, it is irresponsible for [sequester] to happen,” Panetta said Sunday. “Why in God’s name would members of Congress, elected by the American people, take a step that would badly damage our national defense, but more importantly, undermine the support for our men and women in uniform.”

Senate Democrats are using a more blunt political calculation: an advantage in the court of public opinion.

“The American people are on our side,” Reid said. “The American people don’t believe in these austere things. We believe that the rich should contribute, we believe we should fill those tax loopholes.”